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Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Tiptoe through the tulips

I've seen so many wonderful pictures of tulips on Blotanical recently, and have to confess that while I was melting in Udaipur, I felt a tiny bit jealous! So when I woke yesterday to another perfect (and cool) day here in England, I just had to go to the Tulip Festival at Pashley Manor Gardens ... wild horses wouldn't have kept me away!!

The Festival runs until Monday 3rd May and there are some 90 varieties of tulip on display and 20,000 blooms - in every conceivable colour and shape - so these are just a few of the more unusual ones that I saw on my brief visit yesterday. I certainly had no idea that tulips came in such an amazing variety of colours.

Add this extraordinary array of flowers to the backdrop of the manor house (top), with its beautifully manicured gardens, and sculptures dotted around, and you won't be disappointed. Admission is £8.50 (no concessions) and there is ample free parking.

A word of warning though - do get there early if you want to get ahead of the crowds - this has become such a popular event that the garden is swarming with visitors - it makes Sissinghurst look like a breeze! But there's something for everyone as you will see from the shot below and the ducks are so used to visitors that they wander in and out of the crowds, without a care in the world!

I visited Little Larford this weekend in Worcestershire for the tulips, it too was full of visitors and as the garden was quite small it was difficult to see the flowers. You can see my report on my blog

Those are splendid and unusual tulip colors! I sit here in Florida always jealous of the tulip posts, as we cannot grow them here. Well, I guess we can if we buy a refrigerator for the purpose or just treat them as annuals, neither of which I'm willing to do. By the way, that photo of the two girls is absolutely precious!